Thursday, May 10, 2012

Crafty Night: May 2012

This month was the last Crafty Night before the summer. (And possibly the last one ever. Or at least for a long while.) It is very hard to do this alone. I'm in a small community &, after 2 years of doing this, I can't get the crafters to come out like I was hoping they would. My assumption can only be that this is just not a crafty town. I am defeated nonetheless. I realize that part of it could be that I might have the formula down wrong too. Is once a month too much? I noticed after I rose the price from ZERO dollars to $5.00 that I had a serious decline in numbers. Unreal.

If I hadn't invited my girls to come along on this month's Crafty Night adventure, I'd be alone. Yep, it was just the three of us to hand out all these awesome handmade goodies (plus a few other donated items) around town as part of our 2nd "Finders! Keepers!" event. I loved this event last year.

This year it was, honestly, a big fat hassle.

I WAS very grateful for one crafty peep that showed up in the beginning to help package up all 40+ items though!

We have gotten a few responses so far. Here is an email I received:My name is Tracy, and I work at the court house. I pulled up this morning to work and found a plastic sack haning on a tree and thought it was trash. So I went over and saw this cool bag with a crochet headband. Thank you so much! It just made my day!!! :)

I also talked to two ladies that work at a local grocery store & they each found a package as well. Their faces were ALL smiles when they were describing how they found their goodies. One of them said that it also made her day. And the other thought it was so much fun.

The leftover Herb Crafty Night favors were included in the Finders! Keepers! drop-offs as well.(But not before the girls & I each grabbed one of our own. Can't wait to plant our rosemary, basil & oregano in pots on the porch!)

9 comments:

sorry to hear the crafty nights haven't been taking off, I know exactly how you feel. I tried to get a regular crafty event going here but found that the few that turned up weren't really into crafting, they just wanted a gossip with each other which basically meant I was wasting my time!You could come and live in my town, then at least there would be 2 regular peeps at crafty night!

How about an online crafty night? U tell us what to get, we all do it together at the same time! U could even Skype:). Remember when cooking shows were like this and you could cook along? That way more of us would get to share in your creative genius!

I wish I could attend crafty night and I absolutely LOVE your finders keepers night. I live in a small community too and it's hard to get people involved. I don't always find out about things until they over which is also frustrating! I hope you have more success. I'd pay $5 to have a fun night of crafting. It's nice that you have your girls to do things with at least.

Don't give up! Maybe try a fall one at the end of September, a post holiday in January, and a spring one in April. I find that people have just gotten too busy for a monthly obligation. Another thought- ladies could make it a mother/daughter night. Just some thoughts.

When you get emails from people saying how much they enjoy finding the bags you can invite them to the craft night? Kind of use the Pay It Forward angle?

I'm in a photography group that meets once a month (only 3 of us) and I found that I'm not reading the book like I should. Some of it may be that the other two women talk about work stuff - and I'm not interested in that. Too bad I'm not close so I could join in with you and your girls.

I'm so sorry to hear that! Maybe once a month is too much for your city, but i think if people enjoy the time there, it's never too much! Maybe you could make a bigger crafty night, with neigbourh cities, from time to time (maybe 3 months?)Greetings

I think I would Like to give this a try in my hometown. Can you tell me a few more details. Like, do you leave an e-mail in the bag for folks to contact you? or your blog address?It sounds like great fun. I wish we all lived closer together!! LOL

I left tags inside the bags that stated the Crafty Night facebook page where they could leave a message that they'd found something that had been dropped. And I also left my email address. It was a way for me to advertise Crafty Night through my town. (I never got very many responses.) Although, I've also done anonymous "Finders! Keepers!" drops as well. Just for fun & as a random act of kindness. Have fun!!!